Always Running From The End Of Days

Sadness Fills The Heart

Tom and the rest of the group are taking the things out of the car and taking them to the cabins. Christina and I start to walk around as it get's closer and closer to darkness, watching the sun, trying our best to keep the cries of the dead out of our minds. I look down and over at the walkers, must be about 5 of them piled on top of one another, just sitting there with no movement. So I take the axe and start pushing the dead bodies off the fence with the handle. 

"Can I ask you something?" I hear Christina speak for the first time since I had arrived.

"Sure, go ahead." I push the last walker off the fence and then sit on the ground, looking up at her.

She sits down next to me. "What happened?" She's trying to keep tears from escaping her eyes.

I take a breath, trying to relax and think of all the horrors we had seen in the warehouse. "We had managed to get all the things we needed from the warehouse and had already taken them to the car. So we went back in, looking for that teddy bear I gave to Grace."

"You don't have to say anything e....." She begins to say.

"No, I'll tell you." I cut her. "There was a part of the warehouse that was sealed off, chained shut, word scratched right off the little map inside. Your dad and I, we were just so curious to find out what the hell was in that room. But the gruesome details and horror inside shocked us both, there were these zombies, bigger than normal." I stop, thinking of them.

She looks at me, confused. "What do you mean bigger than normal?" 

"They were bigger than the normal zombies, as if they had grown after they died. Whatever this virus is, I think it's mutating and only affecting certain ones, choosing which ever walkers suit it best." Pausing again, I try to make as much sense of it as I can. "There were three of them, your dad and I ran, got out of the building and sealed it as best we could. But we ran into another walker, it's shrieks were ear piercing and attracted walkers from all over that place. I wanted to get away, I tried getting your dad in the car but he didn't, he told me to come back her and told me to keep you safe. Before I could do anything, he ran into the forest, shooting his gun off, attracting most of the walkers to him, all I could do was kill a couple and drive back here before they swarmed me."

I look into her eyes, pure sadness filling them. Tears had already escaped, falling down her face. Every tear drop that fell, killing part of me inside, seeing her like this, knowing that I should have done something different. I already knew the next question she was about to ask, but I just waited to hear her say it. "So...... Y-y-you don't k-know if h-h-he made i-it...?" 

Sadness was filling my heart, but I would not cry. I would show no fear, no pain, no misery, I had to be strong for her and Jim and Grace. "No, I don't believe he could have." 

My eyes were set on hers, I would not, I could not look away. Tear after tear, I pulled her close to me. Hugging her as much as I could. I felt the tears crashing down onto my shoulder, but that didn't matter, all I wanted to do was keep her the happiest I could and if that meant sitting like this for a while, I would do it. She pulled herself back a little bit so that she was face to face with me. "As long as he saved you in doing that, it's all I can be happy about and it's a better thing than nothing." 

 I start to get the gut feeling that he can't be dead and he could have survived. "I'm going back out there."

She stares at me, eyes widened, fear in them. "No, no, no, not after you barely came back last time." 

"Look, I have to. Maybe he made it, I never saw him actually go down." I say.

I can see her mood change. Anger, sadness, fear.... "No! He gave his life for you and I'm not gonna let you waste it by...."